Six Super Bowls ago, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hoisted the Lombardi Trophy at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, little did anyone know that two of that team’s lowest-level coaches would soon be among the hottest names in the business.

One of them, Broncos fans know well by now. His name is Jeremy Bates, Jay Cutler’s 32-year-old quarterback coach who started calling plays this season.

The other soon could become a very familiar name around Denver: Raheem Morris, the 32-year-old defensive coordinator for the Bucs who on Monday was the third man to interview for Denver’s head coaching job. The team interviewed Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels over the weekend on the East Coast.

Morris, who came to Denver for his interview, was recently promoted to defensive coordinator in Tampa to replace Monte Kiffin, who is leaving the Bucs after 13 years to join his son, Lane, at the University of Tennessee.

Yet a pedigree that includes an internship of seven years coaching under Kiffin and four years under Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin when Tomlin coached Tampa’s secondary has some predicting Morris could be the next coaching superstar.

Tomlin had only been a coordinator, in Minnesota, for one season when he was hired by the Steelers, and Baltimore’s first-year coach John Harbaugh never had been a coordinator when he was hired before last season.

“The sky’s the limit for Raheem, as far as where he is now and where he can go,” said Tampa Bay free safety Tanard Jackson, who started every game for the Bucs the past two years under Morris’ tutelage.

Part of the reason Morris’ players have faith is because the defenses he has been part of have produced. The Bucs’ passing defense struggled in 2006 (No. 19 in the NFL), the one year Morris left Tampa Bay to be the defensive coordinator at Kansas State, yet was back to being the top-rated pass defense in 2007 when he returned as the team’s defensive backs coach.

The team’s pass defense made 22 interceptions and ranked No. 4 in the NFL in 2008.

Morris knows defensive backs so well in part because he was one himself. He started for four years at Hofstra from 1994-97, and his coach there, Joe Gardi, said Morris could have been a pro prospect had coaches not moved him from safety to cornerback his senior year.

When Morris went undrafted, his focus turned to coaching.

“When he got out of college, I asked him why he didn’t go and try out for an NFL team,” said Hilton Vaughn, Morris’ father. “And he said, ‘Daddy, I got into this to be a coach.’ ”

In the 10 years since he graduated, Morris has coached defensive backs at Cornell for a season, the secondary at his alma mater for two years and spent the 2001 training camp with the New York Jets being mentored by Herm Edwards, as part of the NFL’s minority coaching internship program.

A year later, Morris got his NFL break, when Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden hired him as the defensive quality control coach. Bates, who likely will be retained by Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, held the same job for the offense.

“The rest is history,” said Gardi, who has retired from Hofstra. Gardi said he believes Morris will make a “great” head coach, either for the Broncos or someone else in the future. “He was always heady, always a good communicator. I know he’s learned some things from me and all the coaches he’s worked for.”

Vaughn, who works nights as a bus mechanic for the New Jersey transit authority, said he’s eagerly awaiting a call overnight from Morris to hear how his interview in Denver — his first for a head coaching job — went.

“I’m sitting here now on pins and needles. He didn’t seem like he was nervous,” Vaughn said. “My feet are not touching the ground. It’s been hard to hold it in, I just keep thinking, ‘Boy, I’m lucky.’ Even before this, I was lucky with this kid.”

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